Estimating installing fluorescent lights....

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chevyx92

Senior Member
Location
VA BCH, VA
Warehouse is 110 Ft by 80 Ft with 15 Ft ceiling open bar joist. I am quoting adding (32) 8 Ft T8 lights(that use (4) 4 Ft T8 lamps per fixture), adding (1) 4 Pole 30A lighting contactor to control new and existing lights with one switch. I plan on working off 10 Ft ladders with a helper. I don't have an estimating program but I'm figuring 40 Hours with a helper to complete this work. I'm sitting on an estimate of roughly $8,000 to provide ALL material, lights, lamps and install. Am I in the ballpark? High? Low?
 
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Daja7

Senior Member
assuming the building is clean and clear, using a lift (a must) job is reasonably close by, i would not touch this job for less than $10,200. there is st up, clean up, unpacking of fixt. overhead, which i am assuming you know what yours is. then profit. what is the point if you do not make a reasonable amount. At $10,200 there is not a lot of markup in that but enough to cover a little over run and still make a bit. I would be much more comfortable with around 12K. Each part of the country is different for labor rate, insurance and taxes.
 
Fulthrotl

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
Location
HB, CA (19 Hrs. 22 Min. from Winged Horses)
Occupation
E
chevyx92 said:
Roughly right at $4,000.
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i'd go at about $11,000 doing it off a lift. no way in hell i'd do
it off ladders, unless there is no way physically to use a lift in
the area.

if it was so clogged with material that i had to run off ladders,
i'd be looking at a lot more money. how much depends on
how crowded it was. i was doing a bunch of pipe work in
a tilt up, and they stocked the warehouse after i quoted doing
it with the warehouse empty, or largely so.

never did finish the work. settled up, and moved on. explained
to the customer it would be on time and material basis, then
spent 8 hours moving pallets to run 60' of 3/4" emt.
 
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btharmy

Senior Member
Location
Indiana
chevyx92 said:
Warehouse is 110 Ft by 80 Ft with 15 Ft ceiling open bar joist. I am quoting adding (32) 8 Ft T8 lights(that use (4) 4 Ft T8 lamps per fixture), adding (1) 4 Pole 30A lighting contactor to control new and existing lights with one switch. I plan on working off 10 Ft ladders with a helper. I don't have an estimating program but I'm figuring 40 Hours with a helper to complete this work. I'm sitting on an estimate of roughly $8,000 to provide ALL material, lights, lamps and install. Am I in the ballpark? High? Low?
Click to expand...

No offense, but doing this job off of ladders is insane. No way! It is too slow and dangerous. You could hang all of the lights in less than 2 days with a lift, a helper to unpack and build and some gripple. You will also cut your time to run cable by using the lift. Ladders are a bad idea. :happysad::happysad::happysad:
 
gadfly56

gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
growler said:
A lift is the way to go.

You don't get nearly as tired working off a lift and it's 10 times safer.
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Around here we would budget $500 for a lift for one week. Includes drop off, rental, and pick up. You can do better on price if you don't reserve at the last second. Our labor would be $9,200 for the techs, plus maybe 4-12 hours for the engineer for drawing, permits, and material purchase (just the big stuff) depending on whether this is going to a GC or not.
 
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BAHTAH

Senior Member
Location
United States
Adding fixtures in warehouse

Adding fixtures in warehouse

chevyx92 said:
Warehouse is 110 Ft by 80 Ft with 15 Ft ceiling open bar joist. I am quoting adding (32) 8 Ft T8 lights(that use (4) 4 Ft T8 lamps per fixture), adding (1) 4 Pole 30A lighting contactor to control new and existing lights with one switch. I plan on working off 10 Ft ladders with a helper. I don't have an estimating program but I'm figuring 40 Hours with a helper to complete this work. I'm sitting on an estimate of roughly $8,000 to provide ALL material, lights, lamps and install. Am I in the ballpark? High? Low?
Click to expand...

Could give a better answer with a bit more information. I assume since you say your new lighting contactor will control existing lights that this work is either a retrofit or an addition to existing facility. Is the 110ft x 80ft area clear of warehouse materials? your using MC cable. How are you going to support the MC cable? Are fixtures pre-lamped with a fixture whip? How many junction boxes do you have to makeup? About all I can say at this point is I typically figure a lift for anything over 12ft.
 
dduffee260

dduffee260

Senior Member
Location
Texas
I am at $9,745.91 on my price. I have the labor factor at 1.25, the fixtures cost at $55 each and a little branch EMT to get to the lights.

I show 95.77 man hours and materials cost at $3,548.22.

Keep in mind one thing. Our labor rates may not be the same as yours. I am a $35.02 and $24.18 for J and A rates.

Scissor lift rental should be $650 a week around here anyways.

I am at a 11% overhead and 25% profit margin on this. In reality for us we usually net about 12% up to 30% profit. Every once and a while we have a project that nets 6% and those are not fun to handle.

PM me if you need anything else.
 
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Fulthrotl

Fulthrotl

~Autocorrect is My Worst Enema.~
Location
HB, CA (19 Hrs. 22 Min. from Winged Horses)
Occupation
E
chevyx92 said:
I'm sitting on an estimate of roughly $8,000 to provide ALL material, lights, lamps and install. Am I in the ballpark? High? Low?
Click to expand...

chevyx92 said:
Anybody else have any input as far as my estimation on price? Low? High? Ok where it is?
Click to expand...

Daja7 said:
At $10,200 there is not a lot of markup in that but enough to cover a little over run and still make a bit. I would be much more comfortable with around 12K. Each part of the country is different for labor rate, insurance and taxes.
Click to expand...

cdslotz said:
I'm closer ot $12,500 with a lift. I added remodel tax on the bottom line (required here in Texas)
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Fulthrotl said:
i'd go at about $11,000 doing it off a lift.
Click to expand...

gadfly56 said:
Around here we would budget $500 for a lift for one week. Includes drop off, rental, and pick up. You can do better on price if you don't reserve at the last second. Our labor would be $9,200 for the techs, plus maybe 4-12 hours for the engineer for drawing, permits, and material purchase (just the big stuff) depending on whether this is going to a GC or not.
Click to expand...

dduffee260 said:
I am at $9,745.91 on my price. I have the labor factor at 1.25, the fixtures cost at $55 each and a little branch EMT to get to the lights.

I show 95.77 man hours and materials cost at $3,548.22.

Keep in mind one thing. Our labor rates may not be the same as yours. I am a $35.02 and $24.18 for J and A rates.

Scissor lift rental should be $650 a week around here anyways.

I am at a 11% overhead and 25% profit margin on this. In reality for us we usually net about 12% up to 30% profit. Every once and a while we have a project that nets 6% and those are not fun to handle.
Click to expand...

i don't know about the rest of you guys, but it's very helpful
for me to see the range of prices for a job... it let's me see
where my numbers are running at. the cool part is that we
aren't in direct competition, tending to be scattered all over
the place.

so you get to see where your competition is at without it
actually being the people you will be competing with.

and the truth is, it's a shame that there isn't a way for
more of us to see what more of us work up for a number.

'cause nobody wants to see that whoohoo, they got that
job, and left $40,000 on the table, and nobody likes working
up a fair bid, putting the time into doing that, and find out
someone else fell on a grenade, and is gonna do a months
work for $225 after they pay the material bill. :rant:

neither side benefits from these things.

so while posts like "hey, help me do my job" aren't well
received, the feel you get for types of work i find
invaluable.

thanks to the guys that posted.
 
P

petersonra

Senior Member
Location
Northern illinois
Occupation
engineer
Good luck.

Personally, I would not worry a whole lot about someone who does it for less. We have run into a number of cases the last few years where competitors are bidding jobs at about what our material price was. I don't know how they are doing it and managing to stay in business, but it happens now and then.
 
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